American Eagle Pilots Reject Contract

No Strike Imminent

HERNDON, Va. _ — Pilots at AMR Corp.'s American Eagle rejected a proposed 16-year contract by a vote of 642-505.

The agreement would have kept pilots' pay at 6 percent to 7 percent above the average for regional airlines and was subject to arbitration every four years.

It also would have been the first agreement to cover all 1,900 pilots who work for AMR Eagle's four units. Simmons Airlines, Flagship Airlines, Executive Airlines and Wings West each currently have their own labor agreement with the pilots union.

Neither side released details of the proposed contract.

``We're disappointed,'' said Captain Homer Pugh, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's Master Executive Council, which endorsed the proposal in June. ``If we can pinpoint the areas of concern, we can refine our strategy and reach an agreement that our members support.''

Previous contracts at Simmons and Executive Airlines expired last year. Flagship's contract will end Sept. 15 and Wings West's lasts until December 1999.

American Eagle is the world's largest regional airline system, operating more than 1,400 daily flights to 125 cities in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.